European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 5, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Sports i a or Saberhagen displays old form by the associated press Bret Saberhagen is finally giving the new York mets what they be been paying him for. The Cincinnati reds Are still paying for signing John Smiley Saberhagen out pitched and outhit Smiley on Friday night As the visiting mets beat the reds 4-3 for their fourth straight vie tory Over Cincinnati. A two time by Young award Winner with the Kansas City royals in the 1980s, Saberhagen Hadnot approached that form in two seasons with the mets winning just 10 of 22 decisions. He had seemingly spent As much time in the trainers room As on the Mound on Friday night in his first Start since missing a turn with Back spasms the right hander continued to re establish himself improving to 6-2 with eight Strong innings to help the mets end a three game Skia. Saberhagen allowed Only seven hits including Solo homers by Kevin Mitchell and Hal Morns and struck out nine. He did not walk a Batter extending to 33 his Streak of innings without a walk. He even delivered a key double with two outs in the seventh. Smiley on the other hand no notes Bret Saberhagen continued along in a pattern All too familiar to the team that shelled out $18.4 million for four years just before last season. He a 7-16 since joining the reds including 4-7 this season. The loss dropped the reds out of first for the first time in 59 Days a game behind Houston. Smiley allowed eight hits in seven innings including David Seguin a eighth Homer and run scoring double. In other games Friday braves 8, dodgers 5 Rookie Ryan Klesko hit a three run Homer in the first inning to snap a 3-for-29 slump and Atlanta beat los Angeles for its fourth straight Victory Klesko a Homer his first in three weeks and eighth this season helped drop Pedro Astacio 3-5 to 0-5 for his career against the braves Astacio allowed seven runs in just 234 innings for the visiting dodgers. Tom Glavine 6-5 stranded 10 runners in the first five innings and helped his cause with an rib single in the braves five run third. The dodgers scored four. Times in the sixth. Astros 4, full Hes 2 Ken Caminiti drove in the go ahead and insurance runs with a pair of singles and Brian Williams stymied Philadelphia on six hits Over seven innings As Home standing Houston moved into the no Central Lead Jeff Bagwell accounted for the astros first two runs with his 13th Homer helping Williams 2-2 improve to 4-0 in his career against Philadelphia David West 1-5 lasted five innings for the Phillies. Marlins 5, padres 1 Pat Rapp allowed Only five hits in 8v4 innings and Jeff con Ine drove in three runs for Florida which ended visiting san Diego a six game win Streak. Rapp 4-1 lost his shutout on Phil plastic re sri single after an error in the ninth. Wally Whitehurst 4-6who had not allowed a run in his last two starts gave up five runs and lasted just 13y innings. Rockies 6, pirates 4 Dante Bichette had a two run Homer and two doubles and Marvin Freeman pitched seven shutout innings As Colorado won its fourth straight and sent visiting Pittsburgh to its fifth loss in a Row. Freeman 5-1 left with a five hitter and 6-0 Lead and had to sweat out a ninth inning rally before Bruce Ruffin got the last out for his seventh save. Bichette a 14th Homer a two run shot off Denny Neagle 5-6made it 5-0 in the fifth Ana Joe Girardi hit his first of the season an inning later. The pirates scored once in the eighth and three times in the ninth before Ruffin fanned Lloyd Mcclendon with the bases loaded to end the game. Expos 3, cubs Pinch hitter Randy Milligans two run Homer in the eighth inning gave Montreal a Victory at Chicago. Kevin Foster left after seven shutout innings having allowed just three hits Chuck Crim 2-1the third Chicago Pitcher to work in the eighth came on with one runner on and Milligan batting for Cliff Floyd hit his first pitch for his first Home run of the season to put the expos in front Jeff Snaw 3-2 pitched one inning for the win. Cardinals 3, giants 1 Ozzie Smith Home red and had two Bis and Allen Watson won for the first time since april 19 As St. Louis dealt visiting san Francisco its Fourt i straight loss. Smith went 3-for-4 with a run scoring single in the third that gave him 750 career Bis and his third Home run in the seventh off Bryan Hickerson 2-5who lost his third straight. Watson 3-3 allowed Only four hits in 6v4 innings including Willie Mcgee a fifth stunned by 5-game ban Cincinnati apy a Reggie Sanders was stunned Friday when National league president Leonard Coleman upheld his five game suspension for charging the Mound. Sanders flew to new York at his own expense thursday to have Coleman hear his Appeal. Sanders got the five game suspension a Coleman s first disciplinary action As no president a for charging Montreal a Pedro Martinez on april 13. Sanders had hoped to get the suspension reduced to four games in line with what other players have received for charging the Mound. He and representatives of the players Union met with Coleman for about 40 minutes. He thought he made a persuasive Case for a Shorter suspension. A we did awesome Quot he said. A when i left the meeting i said a this Guy is going to at least give me one Day less a you Guys would have been impressed. If i had a jury there they would have said a not guilty a a Sanders said Coleman explain Why he got a harsher penalty than the others. He said Coleman told him he was concerned about the Way brawls could affect Young give Gant a look Cincinnati up a former Atlanta outfielder Ron Gant met with Cincinnati officials Friday and said he will sign with a team that promises him in its regular lineup. A wherever i go i have to have an everyday Job a Gant said. A a manager would have to be crazy not to play me every members of the reds medical staff examined the right leg Gant broke in a Motorbike Accident in february. A Rod was inserted along the Tibia from the knee to just above the ankle. A the reds wanted to see what my leg looked like. They say it looks Good a Gant said Friday night. A i want to sign for the rest of the season. I wanted to show them i can run. I know i can still hit i want to show them 1 can still play a the Boston red sox also have expressed interest in Gant who hit .274 with career highs in Home runs 36 and Bis 117 for the braves last season. Labelled Best guess exercises baseball conducted its annual Amateur draft last week picking through the sports most promising new Talent in a chess match of world class proportions. A first round draft Choice is enormously important in any sport. Teams desperately avoid Fritt ering them away. This business of evaluating players is not an exact science though. Through it Alt it is Best to subscribe to the old consumer adage a caveat let the buyer beware. Draft choices do not come with guarantees. Picks Are largely a Best guess exercise and the Best guess of the new York mets is that Florida state Pitcher Paul Wilson is the the mets made Wilson their no. 1 pick and he comes with All the proper credentials a a 95 Mph fastball that produced better than one strikeout per inning pitched for the seminoles this season. A he is the Best College pitch a a decided 1 Hal Boc commentary lege enrolment when the Yankees finally blinked. They All but plucked the Pitcher out of the classroom swooping in at the last moment with a $1.56 million contract. _ Taylor had two promising minor league seasons and then Tore up his pitching shoulder in an off season altercation. He underwent reconstructive surgery last december and his baseball future is very much in doubt. ,. The year before Taylor the Best pitching Prospect in the land was Todd Van Poppel. He too proudly announced that he would not succumb to the lure of a pro contract. His greatest dream he said was to pitch for the University of Texas in the College world series and he had the letter of intent to prove it most teams believed Van Poppel too the Oakland a s did not. They i Una his drafted him and then waved nose to turn his head from or 1 Ever scouted a decided Ron Hopkins who Bird dogged Wilson for the mels. A the has a special Arm Good size and command exactly what you look for in a major league Pittsburgh thought the same thing when it drafted Wilson out of High school three years ago. The problem was the pirates waited until the 57th round to do it and Wilson decided the time Wasny to right for him and went off to College instead. Score one for the enemy. Baseball endorses education except when it must compete with the colleges and universities for Talent. That a Why the draft is an underground operation largely conducted in secrecy. The major leagues Arentt about to let their player evaluations be used by College recruiters and worse than that agents. The threat of going off to College is the Only real negotiating wedge for drafted players. And they often use it skilfully. When the hew York Yankees drafted Pitcher Brien Taylor no. 1 in 1991, the left handers Mother set a fancy Price suggesting that a local Community College up the Road was an awfully appealing alternative. Agent Scott Boras solemnly supported Taylor a decision to become a scholar athlete. The War of nerves went Down to the last Day for col enough Money under Austin to Oakland. Van Poppells Deal included a too soon trip to the majors where he has been regularly thumped. All things considered he might prefer to be in Omaha right now even if the longhorns arc not. This fencing with prospects and trying to guess their intentions can be unnerving and baseball has tried mightily to reduce the stress. The proprietors of the sport decided a couple of years ago that after the first round it would not be in the Best interests of the game a translation owners a to disclose where players had been packed. Baseball a argument is that releasing the subsequent rounds provides ammunition for agents the Arch enemy. Whenever possible management would always prefer to have that particular Community operating in the dark. A kid might get some Highfalutin idea about How much he was Worth after being picked in the second round instead of the 22nd, or 72nd. So Why Tell him this information is on a need to know basis and management decided that players colleges and agents do not need to know. So secrecy prevails. In a week or so teams will announce their picks All at once with no indication of where each player was selected. Some will sign and others will not. And next summer the chess game will be repeated All Over again. The am Octal de Praia y
